When is Simplicity Day in 2018?

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler,” he said.

“And who are you to make such a boisterous claim?”

“I am a famous author, abolitionist, philosopher and historian.”

“Do you have any credentials to back that up?”

“Yes, my name is Henry.”

“Mine is James. Does Henry, by any chance, have a last name?”

“Indeed I do. I have a middle one, too. It’s Thoreau, David Thoreau, Henry David Thoreau.”

“Oh.”

Back in the 1850s, a famous philosopher wrote down the phrase marking the beginning of this fictional conversation. He was born on 12th of July, 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts, and through his life and philosophical work had indebted humanity many times over.

So, we figured that every 12th of July would be celebrated as Simplicity day, a day when we praise Thoreau and his extensive body of work, and try to align our own lives with his life philosophies.

Quite recently, Hipper had published a great post on how to spend your Workaholics Day, celebrated every 5th of July. This post is going to be similar in nature, because our readers were almost unanimously ecstatic about the idea and concept behind the former.

So, without further ado…

… here is a short guide on how to spend your Simplicity Day.

Step 1: Determine what Simplicity Day means to you.

The main goal of Simplicity Day is for every one of us to take a step back, and reevaluate. Reevaluate what? Our increasingly hectic lives, the values we’d adopted by living it, and take stock of the way other people live their lives – and learn from them.

Come Simplicity Day, wake up, get ready for work (or whatever it is that you usually get ready for), and sit down to brainstorm. You will now lay out a clear plan for your day, as well the remainder of your days.

It needn’t be a perfectly thought-out plan, but rather a list of guidelines on how you’ll try to live your life from that moment forward.

Step 2: De-clutter.

Physically. Get rid of things. Have you ever tried to cut down on the number of things you use in your everyday life, on the number of things you think you actually need (and cannot live without)? Remember how good you feel after a spring cleaning session?

When you see your house/garage/apartment clean, airy, roomy, and less oppressive? That’s it. By de-cluttering your physical living space, you are going to de-clutter your soul and rid yourself of a number of anxieties and apprehensions.

Step 3: De-clutter some more.

When you think you’re done, de-clutter some more. Don’t get rid of things that will greatly bring down your quality of life, but everything else needs to go. Revert back to older times, back to Thoreau and his pond and Walden and his Massachusetts idyll.

Imagine yourself living in a simple time and believe, with a stubborn certainty, that the more you approach such a lifestyle, the more your quality of life will improve.

Step 4: Write down a plan on how you’re going to simplify your life in the future.

Remember what you did in Step 1? Now you’re going to write it down. Think of the aspects of your life that you want to improve. Find ways to do it. Lay out clear, attainable deadlines. Don’t overdo it and make yourself crazy by not achieving these things straight away.

Remember how long it took you to build certain aspects of your present life, right? Do expect that these things might even take longer.

Step 5: Get your partner/roommate/friend in on it.

It is great help when you get outside motivation. Perhaps you have a friend, wife, husband, significant other that might want to join in on your newfound “de-clutter” hysteria? If so, bring them along.

Align your expectations with those of your partner-in-crime, and get to it. If nothing, it will be a far more enriching experience.

Step 6: Invest in yourself

Do not get all worked up about Simplicity Day, and then forget everything you’d thought about and decided to do just a few days later. Stick with the plan, invest in yourself, and reap the rewards.

You will witness a profound change in your happiness, but also physical, emotional, and financial well-being once you start simplifying your life.

De-clutter is the word – both in a physical and emotional sense.

Some of our Hipper team members have already started their “Simplification” journey, and rave about the benefits they incurred. So, while it might not work for everyone (for some people prefer a chaotic, fast-paced, and cluttered lifestyle), people who have simplified just a tiny fraction of their everyday lives saw massive changes. We hope, if you decide to take out advice, that you too witness a positive change (or, preferably, plural).

Florence Hazel is a full-time writer with a Masters in English and Sociology. Florence believes that if a single person benefits in some way from her writing, be it physically, emotionally, mentally, or any other kind of –ally, her job was a job well done. She made it her goal to sell happiness and well-being as much as she does flowers and cards. To quote the song Florence starts obsessively humming when words get muddled at the end of an 8-hour workday, “One, two, three, my writing opts for clarity!”